The Fresh Wave Podcast
Our NEW Youth podcast! For Youth, By Youth... And Johnny! We’re taking a fresh look at topics that students engage with on a day to day basis, shaping our viewpoint through the lens of the gospel. Come ride The Fresh Wave!
The Fresh Wave Podcast
I Just Became a Christian... Now What?
The Fresh Wave Podcast returns, and we’re asking an important question: what now? What do you actually do after saying yes to Jesus?
New believer Luke Rowell shares his story of coming to faith just weeks ago—what sparked the change, what surprised him, and how he’s staying rooted when the initial excitement fades. We also hear from Oliver, Maddy, and Johnny about the real challenges of following Jesus in high school and beyond, and what it looks like to grow, even when it’s not easy.
We talk about reading the Bible when you don’t know where to start, why community matters more than you think, and how chasing perfection can actually distract you from chasing Jesus. From cutting out old habits to building new rhythms, this is a powerful conversation for anyone navigating life as a new (or renewed) follower of Christ.
Whether you’ve been walking with Jesus for years or you’re just starting out, this episode will encourage you to stay grounded, stay curious, and stay close to Him.
Hello everyone, welcome to the Fresh Wave Podcast. This is season four, episode 25. This podcast is for youth, by youth.
Johnny:And Johnny.
Maddy:And today we are going to be talking about continuing in our faith and what do we do once we say yes to Jesus? How do we go further with him? We have returning guests Oliver and new guest Luke Rowell. I hope you enjoy this episode.
Johnny:What's up? We are talking about something great here. Yeah, what's next? What now? Just started to follow Christ in my life. Out of the world, out of the lukewarmness. What do I do with that?
Oliver:You? Aren't you a pastor,
Maddy:bro? I have an idea. You should read your Bible and pray. Goodbye.
Oliver:Read your Bible, pray, Jesus. Easy answer.
Maddy:Wow.
Johnny:Bada
Maddy:bing, bada boom. Quickest podcast ever.
Johnny:Nice and easy, bread and butter. So, no, for real though, we are going to have a great topic here. We got Luke and Ollie on for the show. Welcome, boys. Hello. Glad you are here. We're excited to jump into a new topic that we don't believe we've really done before. And, yeah, I think this will be helpful for a lot of people, depending where you are at in your faith. And we're excited to jump in. So, welcome. What up?
Luke:What's up?
Oliver:Luke, the new guy. How's it going, man?
Luke:First time here. Thanks for having
Oliver:me. Oh, thanks. Yeah, there you go. All right. That's how you use a microphone. You usually put it by your face. Mr. Martin didn't teach me this,
Luke:though. So, yeah, I recently got saved, like, a month ago. I tell some people, you know. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Praise God. Sometimes I tell people, like, oh, like two months ago. But, like, I was thinking about this this morning. And I was like, it was literally a month ago. It was kind of after I ended school, high school. I'm going to my freshman year of college. And I told myself, I was like, all right, I need to throw away the old self. You know, just get into my new self. Because I always wanted to... get into the Bible and stuff like that. I never really had a Bible. And I was scared to go to church because I didn't know what to wear. I think I texted you, Oliver. I was like, dude, I don't really know what to wear. Dude, you should have seen what I wear to church. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I got a polo. Okay. But, what was I saying? Yeah, yeah, so, like, out of high school and then all of a sudden, like, I was reading this Bible and I was like, okay, this is pretty cool. When's my first church service here? Like, four weeks ago. Yeah, it's like, when I'm going to my fifth service is this Sunday. Like, it's really cool. And it's so cool to see all these people connected through the love of Jesus. Um, But yeah, the topic today, right, is what happens when you're saved, what happens when that, for me, it was like, I had this fire in my heart, and it was like this feeling in my heart, like it was just like love, and I still feel loved, but it's like, that kind of went away after like two weeks, and I realized I was like, I think I heard someone else say this as well, it was like, It's going to be hard. Satan's going to tempt you with these things. And he's going to try to make you think, hey, it isn't all sweet. This isn't all sweet. This isn't all sunshine and rainbows here. It's going to get hard. And I realized that. And I was like, okay, how do I maintain my faith? And it was just like you said earlier, Bible every day. Just prayer. Prayer, prayer, prayer. And I realized that Jesus is our friend. You can just talk to him casually in the car. You can joke with Jesus. You know, he understands you more than you do. God understands you more than you do. And I think that's, sometimes I forget that sometimes. But yeah. Yeah, I love it. Wait,
Johnny:before we get to the what now or what next, that moment when like, whatever you said, like you graduated, you're like, oh, I really want to like start reading the Bible or throw away the old self. Like what prompted that?
Luke:I was always like in high school. I never drank. I never smoked. When I was at parties, I would go and I would just be like, hey, this isn't, I don't really like this. Why am I here? I would be with my friends. I'm like, why am I here? It was upsetting to see all these people so lost, and they were trying to fill this void in their heart with smoking, with drinking, with whatever it was, false relationships, whatever it was. And then I learned, I was like, okay, I've already kind of wanted it. I'm not that type of guy. And I grew up Catholic. That's important to remember. I grew up Catholic. I had soccer on Sundays, so I would just skip church to go to games. That was more important at the time. I didn't know who Jesus was. I didn't know what he did. All I knew was he died on the cross for us. Forgiveness for our sins. I didn't know what repent meant. I didn't know what it meant or what it means or whatever. It was hard because then all of a sudden I had to pick this back up. And I started from ground zero. I still don't know where certain stuff is in the Bible, I'm going to be totally honest. But yeah, I mean, it's... Like where I go now is a really good question. And it's just, again, prayer, Bible. and staying tight in the community, I think, with so many other people. That's important. In high school, Washington Hills, we went to. You're not always surrounded. Warriors. Yeah, Warriors. You're not always surrounded with Christians, Catholics, people that are very devoted in their faith. I said this to Oliver. Oliver, I think you were the only guy in the high school that was on that level of church every Sunday. Maybe not youth pastor level, but that type of level of deep in the faith. And I wanted to be like that, and I wanted to you know, get into it. And it was hard because I wasn't surrounded by, with people that was of faith, you know, we're talking about that stuff and it was hard to have conversations with people when it's like you just didn't see eye to eye on that type of stuff. And now, I think the biggest thing for me is like you join this community and you're just surrounded by so many people that are of faith and so much in common, so much similar and you can talk about this stuff that may be uncomfortable to some people. And that's helped me really a lot.
Johnny:That's awesome. So, Oliver, In your testimony, your story, you would share like a couple of years ago, everything kind of, scripture talks about like the veil being removed and like your eyes could finally see. I think you've kind of shared a couple of years ago that kind of happened to you. So like, what did you, you know, to hear Luke kind of view of you at school, it's pretty awesome to hear the impact you're having on your Instagram page and other things that you're doing and just the way you walk and talk and everything. So like, what was it for you? Like, you know, veil was removed. What did you do next that really helped you kind of grow in your faith these last couple of years?
Oliver:Yeah, so a big part for me was I was in the world, and I was kind of like a fake Christian at that point. I would go to church on Sundays. I wouldn't even read my Bible. I wouldn't pray. I was just going through the motions kind of. keeping up that image. I don't know, just to make my mom proud, I guess, because she wanted me to go to church. And then that retreat, I got saved just like that. It just hit me. I surrendered. I told God, just take over my life, have control. And what I realized is that meant I had to cut a lot of things out of my life. So for me, it was bad music. It was just videos that didn't lead me to Christ. Just watching better stuff now, listening to worship music, better music, played a big part of my life because the stuff that you put in your heart is the stuff that comes out of your mouth. It says it. I didn't prepare for anything. It says it in Matthew. Paul says it a lot. Yeah, so whatever you have in your heart is what comes out of your mouth. It's what... It's like what you think about all the time, it just comes out of your heart. So I filled my heart with all these things that will glorify God, these things that are better for my life. And I just saw a drastic change. Like my mom saw a change, my family, my friends, you guys, you all saw a change in me. And yeah, that's just having a close relationship with Jesus, just building that is kind of what gets you going, you know? Amen. You said drastic change, but
Johnny:for some reason I heard Jurassic change. Is that a word that we use? What's a Jurassic change? A drastic change. Yeah. Amen. We definitely all saw it. No one but God can do that, I think, in our lives. Now you're all over our YouTube channel. Yeah. Check it out. Wednesdays in the Word, every Wednesday. Check it out. We've got a few more dropping during the summer. Yeah, I think that's awesome to hear both your stories and kind of how... where you guys stopped. I think what's really cool for you, Lucas, and what I'm seeing is I'm like, Luke's everywhere. He's at the Williams home study. He's at Pickleball Sunday. He's at Sunday school. I'm like, this is so cool.
Luke:I got nothing else to do. So I may as well be here. I actually, I turned down an invite from my good friend, Brooke. She invited me to this Grace Chapel thing and it was this barbecue. That's the first thing, that's the first church thing recently in the past month that I've actually turned down. I was like, hey, can't go because I'm doing a podcast. She was pumped for me.
Johnny:Yeah. So I think that's like, that's a huge helpful thing, I think, for you and for anyone. It's just to get plugged in, to talk. I see you talk talking to all different people on Sunday mornings. That's awesome. Different generations too,
Luke:which is so cool. I got breakfast tomorrow morning with Ed Williams. Oh, nice. Shout out, shout out, Ed. I don't know if he's gonna be watching this. I'll send him the link. Oh, he'll watch it. He'll watch it. If you're on it. What up, Ed? Yeah, like I said earlier, again, I wasn't really prepared for this. I was prepared for a different topic, Oliver told me, but it's... What? I was just informed now of the topic. It's better this way. It's all good. Off the dome, right? I think a huge thing for me is community because we need each other. God created us people to Talk to other people. You gotta be together. You gotta do this thing together. Fellowship. Two weeks ago, the Bible study on Tuesdays, we dove into that. And I think it's important to remember that we're stronger just together and people pushing me in faith and telling me, okay, read the Gospel of John. It's gonna teach you a lot. I just finished that. And that was really powerful for me. I'll flip to that in a second. But it was amazing stuff in there. But if I didn't have that in my life, he wouldn't have told me to do that. And I'd be kind of lost in the Bible and be like, okay, where do I go now? So having mentors is great listening to social media. Social media, I think I'll agree with the same point of view on this. It's bad if you make it bad. There's some really good stuff on there, right? Like on Instagram Reels. Is it going to be brain rot or is it going to be like Philip Anthony Mitchell? Is it going to be just preachers, right? So like you can see some amazing stuff on Instagram and some amazing inspiration that can push you further in your faith. I think that's a big thing is like you said earlier, like feed your soul, like good stuff. You don't need... to be watching the wrong stuff and listening to the wrong stuff. I think listening to the wrong stuff is big. I think secular music is really important. I cut that out. I was thinking about that the other day, and I said, I don't think I can go back after worship music and Christian rap. I like worship music better than Christian rap now, which is pretty crazy. I don't think I can ever go back to listening to country music or rap, the lyrics. I just can't go back to that. Yeah. God has transformed me into something new now. I also think it's my job to make sure, or try to educate people on Jesus' love and how you can feel the same way that I felt or I currently feel about my faith and stuff like that. It's amazing.
Johnny:That's so good. I think what you fill yourself with In any other area, we would say impacts you. So like physically, what you fill yourself with is going to impact you physically. So if you're filling yourself with garbage, your body is going to be garbage, right?
Luke:It's
Johnny:like a gym. Mentally, right? Like what you're doing mentally, conversations you're having, things you're looking, listening to, whatever, is going to impact like your mental state. And then same thing spiritually, I think as well. Sometimes I think we're... we're immune. I think the classic, the classic thing we would always say, even like conversations with your sister, when we were talking about music a lot, it's like, well, I can listen to it and I'll be fine. You know, like, or I, you know, I'll play these video games, but I'm not going to go do these things after the playing the video games. Yeah. I think I would always say that with music too, for a while. I'm like, oh, I can listen to this. It says this and this, but like, it's fine. So I do think like the, what you feel yourself impacts how you, who you are, how you feel, how you think, and it impacts ultimately I think even like what you do, what you say, how you think. So I think that's a good observation and a good thing to recognize.
Luke:What you say is big. Because recently like I... It was last year, I started to cut down on my cursing. I used to be really big on profanity. I would curse in almost every single sentence. And it was really bad. My friends, they would curse, but they would call me out on it. Dude, you curse in every single sentence. It's kind of crazy. And recently, I hardly curse. I don't think I curse anymore, genuinely. Unless it just really, really slips out, frustrated. What
Johnny:do you think? I totally know people like that. What do you think led you to do that? Was it just like... Anger, lack of vocabulary, just talking without thinking. I think
Luke:my vocabulary was okay. It was just talking without thinking is a big one. And the music I listened to. I was listening to drill rap. It's every sentence that they're dropping the F-bomb or whatever it is. So I think it's big. Feed your soul the right stuff and feed your mind the right stuff. When I read my Bible in the morning, I try to read it every morning. I think I have read it every morning for the past two weeks. The more I read it in the morning, the more going through the day, I'm more content with certain situations. I'm more like, okay, this happened for this reason. I feel just happier during the day. And that's all because I'm reading the scripture in the morning, which is just really important. Just, again, feeding your mind, feeding your soul the right stuff. It just makes you better. It just... the love of Jesus. It just makes you so much better.
Johnny:Yeah. I think they say, don't go to the grocery store when you're hungry. Otherwise you'll just take everything. I think the same thing with like the day, right? Like if you go into the day hungry, like you'll do whatever to fill yourself. What about you, Maddie? What, how would you say some, some things for you?
Maddy:Were helpful, impactful? Yeah, I was just going to say, I guess when I first got saved, my biggest thing that I had to work on was my identity. I had gone so far into using other things to identify myself and just allowing myself to be conformed by what the world wanted from me or what my friends wanted from me. And that impacted my behavior as well. But I think when I first got saved, the biggest thing for me was I was realizing I didn't have to conform to of those things and I was made for a new purpose like becoming a new creation and like having all these great habits and like changing your lifestyle and your behavior is great and like it's all important but I think one of the main things is like now Jesus calls us someone else like we are not called by our sin anymore and like our flesh nature but we're called by Jesus we're called by him and his name and I think that's also one of the most important things to start realizing like even if you know, these habits become hard. Like if we're just chasing after like the good behavior for the sake of it and for our own perfection, like that's leading us nowhere. But if we're chasing it because it's starting to become something we desire and it's starting to become the fruit that comes out of loving Jesus, then you're chasing after his perfection and not your own. So I don't know. I think a lot of it was learning my place and like humbling myself to say, I won't be perfect. I'll strive after it. But being a fruitful Christian and that type of person comes out of just spending time with God. And it comes out of realizing God's perfection over my own. I had one of the verses of John 14, 15, which is, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And that kind of reflects on love and obedience at the same time. So, you know, not like It's obviously it says, if you love me, you will do something else called keeping my commandments. And it's just a reminder that loving Jesus becomes such a deep and transformative thing that it leads you to do his commandments because you're treasuring him. You're being obedient. And so it's kind of like a cause and effect thing. So, yeah, I just think it. Honestly, like chasing after our own perfection can become easy, especially like, honestly, I did that when I first became Christian. It was like, let me do all these things. And then I realized what a struggle it was. And then I was like, oh, this is really difficult if I'm not even loving Jesus or even figuring out who he is. It starts from like treasuring his holiness and his perfection and his purity and kind of like the nature of just understanding him as your treasure before all else.
Johnny:That's really good. Yeah, I feel like we live in an area that is prone to that. Like when somebody gets into something, it's like, I'm gonna be the best. I'm gonna figure out every little angle. I'm gonna do everything really great. We're just, we're very, we're living in a very driven area. And I think we can easily take that. I think a lot of us are probably guilty of that, bringing that into our faith. Yes, I think identity is great. Just, you're saved, just enjoy, just enjoy Jesus. Like just enjoy him. Enjoy being in his presence, hanging out with him, spending time with him. I think that's huge. That's great.
Luke:I think with sports, that's important. I think with sports, a lot of people can, with a sport in their background, like I don't know if Oliver, you've done this with basketball, but for football, for me, I was like, where do I go? Last year, I was thinking, I was like, where do I go without football? And I was like, yeah, what do I do if I don't coach after, or I don't play for a long time, and then try to figure it out after? I don't really know what I was gonna do. And I'm playing in college, you know, thankfully, but it's crazy how I was, without football, I was like, where do I go now? But now I have that foundation, where I'm like, okay, I have something to fall back on and that's God. I can fall back on God and ask him like, okay, where do I go now? Instead of in the past where I would have been like, okay, where am I going? What do I do? I'm like lost and I would fall into the wrong stuff because I was lost and talk to the wrong people because I was lost. But I think that's important.
Johnny:Yeah, I think that's why Michael Jordan retired like three times. Like, what do I do now? He goes back. All right, so I have a fun question. So a little this or that option for you since we've got some athletes in the house. Well, actually, Athletes in the entire, I would say, probably the entire room. Still
Tim:got
Johnny:it somehow. Still got a little something in there maybe. Believe it or not. All right, so obviously we have a basketball player, a football player, two very good ones. So I think a fun question is, especially with your two sports, college football is incredible. Pro football is incredible.
Luke:Pro football is nice, yeah.
Johnny:Basketball, college basketball, pretty crazy atmosphere. Pro basketball as well, pretty awesome. If you had to pick... what would you rather be a star of and just live in that moment? Would you pick college or professional? Don't think about money, just think about just the sport, the environment, the atmosphere, the fame, all that stuff. What would you rather be just the star at?
Luke:That's a really good question. I think when you're good at the college level, that's your whole, like the school is just like, you're the school. like you are like Michael Jordan when he was at UNC like he was UNC like he was the identity of UNC I'm trying to think of college football players now I have an example so I'm an LSU fan and so I went down there recently and he yeah he Burrow had been gone for a few years it was Jay and Daniels playing and Joe Burrow was a god down there he was it's insane like he played for a year and a half for LSU and for certain especially like the south and certain like like certain college football. Even Michigan, the Big Ten, and Notre Dame. If you are a legend at one of those places, you're kind of immortalized. I'm not saying you should be looking for
Tim:that.
Luke:I feel like Joe Burrow will go down bigger amongst LSU fans than Patrick Mahomes will amongst LSU. Chiefs fans when it's all said and done. That might not be a good example, but that's pretty big. I feel like people just love their college team more. I think people just have a deeper connection because they went there. There's more passion. There's just way more passion because in college football, there's way more teams and you're not... good every year because the guys go after two years. So Joe Burrow was at LSU for, again, like you said to him, a year and a half, wasn't there for a long time, he just completely leaves, and then all of a sudden LSU isn't as great the next year. So it's tough to be good in college football. I think now the comparison would probably be Jeremiah Smith. People going to Ohio State, I've talked to the people going to Ohio State, a lot of people from Washington Hills, and they say, oh yeah, Jeremiah Smith, and that's all I know. So he is kind of like the football team, he is a big part of the school, and the identity, when you bring up Ohio State, up him so i for me my take is gonna be college
Oliver:college go back go back i'm also go college i feel like it's better competition you know they take it more serious like nba it's kind of kind of like a joke now yeah it's like you're just shooting up threes you're drawing fouls and stuff i feel like college is like the real deal for i don't know about football no football but the
Luke:nfl is a big deal yeah two different very yeah they're kind of different sports but like I'm picturing basketball, I think of Duke. You are the star at Duke, Cooper Flag. That atmosphere,
Johnny:you can't beat that atmosphere.
Luke:Yeah, that's insane. Especially March Madness. There's nothing like it. Because everybody in March, when Mark Mattis is going on, they just talk about, oh, you see Flag last night, you see this guy. That's what they're talking about for a whole month. College football, I think it's similar where every week you talk about, oh, let me see what that guy did. I remember I was kind of an LSU fan five years ago. Now I'm not because it's not that great.
Johnny:Wait, which team?
Luke:LSU. Oh, LSU, okay. A little bit of a bandwagon. But Burrow was so sick. And Burrow was so good that he would take away from Jefferson and Chase, which were his wideouts. But yeah, enough football. Matt, what do you think?
Maddy:I don't know enough about men's sports to talk into this, but I play tennis. So... I mean I would say professional tennis gets more attention than college tennis and that it's so much more like US Open is the huge thing and like I don't know I think like Wimbledon like all those things get more attention but also they're more exciting to watch because everybody's better and especially because they're one-on-one things or two-on-two things like it's more attention on the player as like a person and as player and less like team-wide effort. I'd say professional tennis. College tennis is the kind of thing you do while you're waiting to become a professional. I don't know.
Tim:This
Maddy:is
Johnny:true. I
Maddy:still think professional. It's more interesting to
Johnny:watch. I agree with all these. I'd probably say the same thing for all the sports.
Luke:As a person that doesn't watch tennis, I don't know where Serena Williams went to college. I know of her. College players going pro is relatively newer like Serena Williams I don't think played in college guys like Federer and Nadal but there's a lot of players now who actually played in college first and they're developing there and then they're coming so it's interesting mostly American players certain sports like I don't college girls softball that's huge college softball is huge now college basketball is really exciting I think they're getting a softball professional league I think that starts in the West Coast. Because in terms of professional sports, I think college basketball is still slightly less big than the NBA. NFL is, again, it's just bigger than college football. It's getting closer. So college sports, it's just, again, the students, the atmosphere, and people. Like you said, Johnny, more passion. It's like, oh yeah, this is my alma mater. I gotta represent Notre Dame, whatever it is.
Johnny:So yeah. Yes, sir, that. Which one? I agree with all those. Those are some good debates. But yeah, following the Lord. Yeah, I think another thing when it comes to like what's next is just not being afraid to like ask questions. Like if you're being very curious, I was just talking about this recently. I think there's a difference between questions for God and questioning God. And I think questions for God is really good. And I think you should bring a lot of them. And I think when you're, you're starting to follow Jesus. I think just like, as like a little kid to go somewhere new, like they're asking questions constantly. Like, what's this? What's that? Why is that that? Why is that that? Like, I think it's like a good curious. Like you just want to like know who the Lord is. You want to be with him. You want to talk to him. So I think just asking questions and just enjoying that phase of like this new life that you have.
Maddy:Yeah. I think that's also probably like an aspect of childlike faith too. Like being curious. And I also think it's important to recognize that God is like, enjoying all the time we take to discover him and like to get to know him like all the time that we do things wrong or we make mistakes or we slip up like that's all part of us coming towards him um and if we if we didn't want to make mistakes we just stand still and we wouldn't do anything because we were so afraid of getting things wrong but um i think the most important thing is that like we keep moving towards god in just his truth and his love and not necessarily saying oh i have an idea that like no one over the past 2 000 years has had but it's right and this is a sin like of course we don't like talk about that and like rebuke truth, but I think moving on the straight line of path of truth and not worried about getting things wrong. Um, but also like, you know, continuing to learn from our mistakes and keeping it with God's truth.
Johnny:Yeah. I remember the first time I went snowboarding on a mountain, I just expected I would be pretty good at it. And I wasn't, and I was, and it was, I was, I think it was like an early date with Shannon and I, I face planted a few times. I fell a few times and I was so grumpy. I was like, so grumpy. I was like, this, this is horrible. Why did we do this? Uh, I eventually got pretty good at it, but like that, that first time I was just, I was so bad. I was like embarrassed. I was like, why can't I get it? Why can't I learn to carve all this stuff? And yeah, I think like when it comes to our faith, like, I would not advise that mentality of like, Oh, I fell and they get all grumpy. And I think just like, Hey, get back up, you know, keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep, you know, the community that Luke you have, like people are going to come and come alongside you, show you the way. Like, so I think, yeah, that's a really good point. As you're, you start your, your walk.
Luke:I was at a Bible study on Monday night, um, Scotch Williams church. And, um, there were just people there that knew so much about the Bible and I was just like taken back and I was like whoa like I've been outplayed here and like not many things in my life I've just been like whoa like I lost like this isn't like a battle this isn't like a game but like I was the worst one here. I gave no insight. I was like, wow, you guys just know way more than me. And I remember, and I was thinking, I was like, I told John Batone, and I was like, he's probably watching this, I hope so. And he was like, dude, don't worry, eventually you'll get to that level. But he told me, he was like, dude, take advantage of it now, because you're reading this stuff for the first time. So take advantage of that experience, and the awe is gonna kick in, the awe of like, like, wow, Jesus did this. That's amazing. John Matoni said he wishes he could experience that again, you know, because that feeling, that awe is just amazing. So when I read the rest of this Bible, I can't wait to experience that more and get to know Jesus more.
Oliver:Yeah. Yeah, I was just going to jump in. And for, like, next steps, something you need to do is just, like, fully fix your eyes on Jesus, fully surrender. to Jesus. And something I think of is like, I think of Peter. And so like when he first sees Jesus, Jesus says, come and I'll make you fishers of men. And then I'm in Acts right now and I'm like reading it and I'm I remember, so Jesus says that then they drop their nets, they follow him, and they go with him. They see all these miracles. They see all these things. They just witness all this stuff. They don't question him. They don't worry about their future or anything. And then I'm in Acts right now, and I just see this all coming to life. I see him being a fisher of men. He just healed this... this lame beggar in chapter 3, and then he speaks out on it. Like, instead of just going to the temple where he originally was going to go, he just takes his time to really, like, just preach the word, just spread the word to these people who were, like, amazed by the miracle that they just witnessed. So I think if you want to, like, the next step, you just got to just focus on Jesus. Like, follow him like Peter did. Just follow him. Not physically, because we can't physically follow him, but, like, just follow him by reading your Bible, by praying, by talking to him. And then you'll just see all these things in your life, like, He completely changed man now. And I feel like God will do the same thing for you if you just surrender.
Luke:Love that word. What a right to say that. I think of that. Sometimes you weren't there, so I'm like, where's Oliver to look at? Because I'm like, okay, he would have understood that joke.
Maddy:So for our end reflection, just kind of touching on what Oliver said about following Jesus, the journey is enjoyable and I think when Jesus has us in mind for loving him and him loving us, he does really want us to enjoy that journey. He wants us to learn from it. And that might come with making mistakes, that might come with being silent and learning from the people around you, but that is the biggest part of just coming to know Jesus and gaining wisdom over time as the Holy Spirit works in you as the Holy Spirit convicts you. So I would just remind us that focusing on performance instead of our calling can be dangerous, but God definitely has a perfect, pure plan for all of us, trusting that we would be willing, go out, serve Him, and glorify Him by first and foremost treasuring Him and loving Him, making Him our priority, and then going forward with our biblical calling of just loving the people around us and loving God.